The present invention relates to a universal evacuation pod. In the prior art, evacuation devices are well known. A variety of stretchers, slings and other apparatuses are well known for use to facilitate emergency evacuation of disaster victims as well as sick and injured people. Such devices often include handles to facilitate carrying of a person, straps both for gripping the device itself or to fasten a person thereto, flexible or rigid bodies, the latter often employed where the person to be carried has spinal injuries or one or more broken limbs, and other features including padding.
Some emergency evacuation devices also include one or more inflatable chambers which when inflated provided rigidity and which when deflated facilitate easy storage since the device adopts a much smaller volume when deflated.
A need has developed for a universal evacuation device that is easily stored in a small space or an unobtrusive location and which may be easily and quickly deployed when needed to effectively effectuate evacuation of a person.
The following prior art is known to Applicant:
U.S. Published Application No. US 2003/0106155 A1 to Arai discloses an inflatable stretcher including a plurality of chambers that are inflated, described as pockets that are inflated to render the stretcher usable. As disclosed, when not in use, the patented stretcher adopts a collapsed configuration, folded into a compact unit, and disclosed as mountable to a stairwell or stored in an emergency vehicle. The Arai device also contemplates use of straps to hold a person in place within the inflatable stretcher. The present invention differs from the teachings of Arai in a number of respects including its enhanced versatility of deployment, both in a wall-mounted canister as well as flat on top of a mattress on a bed. The present invention also includes additional features including the fact that its inflatable chamber renders it buoyant and including the provision of straps, both to hold it onto a bed before use, but also to facilitate transporting it with a person strapped into it.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,216,378 to Barth et al. discloses a patient removal system in plural embodiments. One embodiment includes a complicated mechanism to handle a patient positioned on the device. Another embodiment includes use of inflatable tubes beneath a drape draped over the patient. This latter embodiment is extremely cumbersome contemplating six large elongated tubes positioned under the person to be transported. The present invention by contrast is extremely portable, versatile in its manner of storage, easy to deploy, and includes features facilitating protection of the person to be transported by inflated chambers which may also provide suitable buoyancy.